(Ordinarily I wouldn't post about a project that has no end product available to download, but given the recent kerfuffle going on in the Dios Mios topic I thought it was prudent to give a peek behind the curtain.)

WHAT: Devolution is a loader designed to run gamecube games on a wii. Dolphin was the codename for the gamecube, Revolution was the codename for the wii, add them together = Devolution.

WHY: To do what the "official" method doesn't. I hate GC controllers and the crappy little discs. And if you bought a new model wii you can't play NGC games at all.

WILL: Devolution aims to let you do the following:
- Use alternative mediums for loading games (SD and USB)
- Use alternative controllers (wiimote + classic controller instead of GC controller)
- Use alternative mediums as memory cards (SD, USB and NAND)
- Support audio streaming games properly. It's possible but remains to be seen if it's feasible i.e. if the hardware is going to be fast enough to do what I have in mind.
Alternative loading mediums are already implemented (that's right, working GC USB loading!). Memory card emulation is half-done (reading, no write support). Wiimote and audio streaming support haven't been started.

WON'T: It's not going to be a warez loader. You will need to own (or at least possess) the games you wish to run. I don't plan to ask for any donations, although at some point if there's a particular game that someone wants fixed I might have to insist they provide it or at least the means for me to get it; I'm not going to fork out for a copy of MGS from my own pocket, for example.

HOW: It's complicated (but not impossible!). Basically the wii is a gamecube with extra bits, as long as NGC games can see the hardware they expect to see the extra parts don't matter. One big advantage of Devolution is that it doesn't require any changes to the software on your wii; no replacing MIOS, no extra cIOS or channels, just an app to run from either HBC or the exploit of your choice.

WHO: Me alone. This is a solo project and everything is written from scratch; no "borrowed" code or even any use of libogc. This might change in the future when I want a bluetooth stack. Though the point is this has nothing to do with any other project (my past work or anyone else's) and no, there is no GPL code used so don't bother trying to demand to see the source.

The Zelda: Collector's Edition titles all run fine with the exception of Ocarina of Time which has audio issues.

The following games are playable but have what appears to be some sort of texture cache issue:
- Medal of Honor: European Assault (viewable in youtube video)
- Metroid Prime
- Metroid Prime 2
- The Sims
- WWE Wrestlemania 8
- Zelda: Wind Waker (very minor, hearts or controller buttons only)

The following games are currently not playable:
- F-Zero GX
- Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit

WATCH:

Some notes about the video: there's a two minute playtime counter in the current code that reboots to the launcher when it expires, hence the abrupt cut-offs. I added it after realizing I'd spent half an afternoon "testing" mario kart instead of actually doing work, I left it active to keep the youtube video length down. Unfortunately this meant there was not much gameplay recorded... but at least you can see how smooth all the intro videos are (or in the case of Medal of Honor, the menu screen bugs) and the fact that audio can work with USB loading. Also I totally got away with sending that 4WD flying in NFS, didn't that look cool?

WHEN: Hard to say. Maybe a proper release some time near the start of May. So far I've bought four batches of games on ebay and each time around two-thirds of them will load up fine while the others require fixing, so there's still a fair bit of work to be done compatibility-wise plus the other features to be implemented.

Holy crap, this is big news!
I'll definitely be keeping an eye on this!

There's just one thing I'm confused on and that is...

WON'T: It's not going to be a warez loader. You will need to own (or at least possess) the games you wish to run. I don't plan to ask for any donations, although at some point if there's a particular game that someone wants fixed I might have to insist they provide it or at least the means for me to get it; I'm not going to fork out for a copy of MGS from my own pocket, for example.

How is it going to prevent someone from loading warez? Is it going to require you to have the disk in the drive in order to load it?

Do they have to be fully functional? Some of my games are scratched to the point where they freeze at random, but they can all start up. I swear, my discs get scratched even if nobody touches them, lol.

I don't plan to ask for any donations, although at some point if there's a particular game that someone wants fixed I might have to insist they provide it or at least the means for me to get it; I'm not going to fork out for a copy of MGS from my own pocket, for example.

I hope you set up a donation link. I don't have much money (it's hard to find a job when you can't drive), but the fact that you aren't demanding "donations" for releases is something I'm glad to hear.

It's not going to be a warez loader? How you going to manage that? We have to dump our own games with your loader? I hope not, because I've downloaded images for all my old gamecube disks. A few of them are scratched to hell and unplayable as it is

Oh god I can see the end already. Someone cracks whatever anti piracy you have in mind for use with pirated copies, epic drama ensues and you leave the scene forever. Every time.

I will definitely donate as well.
Very very nice work on this.
I understand doing Anti Piracy on Wii games.
But for gamecube games, they are old and hard to find now these days.
And for us that own original gamecube games are really scratched up and unplayable. So I hope you think about this.

i don't quite understand this...is this like DML but with what everyone wants like USB storage and bluetooth access?

Yes, except (as I understand it) you will need to have the original disc in the drive, and you don't have to pay him (more impressive because he could legally charge you, unlike with DML). He is doing this for the community and (I assume) because he enjoys it, not so he can make money.

No, that's not the anti piracy. The entire project has next to no point if you need to keep the original disk inserted. He already said that some of the aims of the project are SD/USB loading and getting rid of "those crappy little discs"

I actually can't fathom any sort of antipiracy you could do with this except to only let the loader use games that it has been dumped with. And that seems rather easy to get around.

i don't quite understand this...is this like DML but with what everyone wants like USB storage and bluetooth access?

Yes, except (as I understand it) you will need to have the original disc in the drive, and you don't have to pay him (more impressive because he could legally charge you, unlike with DML). He is doing this for the community and (I assume) because he enjoys it, not so he can make money.

No, that's not the anti piracy. The entire has next to no point if you need to keep the original disk inserted. He already said that some of the aims of the project are SD/USB loading and getting rid of "those crappy little discs"

I actually can't fathom any sort of antipiracy you could do with this except to only let the loader use games that it has been dumped with. And that seems rather easy to get around.

Lol, are you TRYING to discourage this project?

I believe we don't have too much info to know what are the anti-pitracy measures. We know that tueidjis a good coder and probably know what Midna is saying.

P.S: Joostin, we know you don't like DML, but this isn't the place to bash it.

i don't quite understand this...is this like DML but with what everyone wants like USB storage and bluetooth access?

Yes, except (as I understand it) you will need to have the original disc in the drive, and you don't have to pay him (more impressive because he could legally charge you, unlike with DML). He is doing this for the community and (I assume) because he enjoys it, not so he can make money.

No, that's not the anti piracy. The entire has next to no point if you need to keep the original disk inserted. He already said that some of the aims of the project are SD/USB loading and getting rid of "those crappy little discs"

I actually can't fathom any sort of antipiracy you could do with this except to only let the loader use games that it has been dumped with. And that seems rather easy to get around.

Lol, are you TRYING to discourage this project?

Lol, are you TRYING to convince people this project isn't worth using before the OP can even clarify by spreading misinformation that it will only load disks from the drive? Especially since even glancing over the first post would have told you that's not true